I think there's room in the field for someone with full-scale conservativevalues.... I don't think that end of the field's crowded.

It will take more than opposition to abortion and gay marriage to win the Republican nomination. Brownback's platform against wasteful federal spending and for compassionate and practical programs to help the poor, energy independence, stopping cancer, term limits for judges and members of Congress, and a flat tax doesn't seem like enough to me. But perhaps it is a generational thing.

At Race42008, David G analyzed this month's GOP Bloggers online straw poll and concluded that Brownback leads the field among young conservatives:

The biggest surprise can be found in the subsample of voters aged 18-24, whereSam Brownback came in first, followed by Romney, Newt, and then Rudy.

David's explanation of Brownback's appeal to the young conservatives is interesting. This group of voters consists of college-aged conservatives who came of age politically around the time of the 2000 election. The first Republicanism these voters knew was President Bush's compassionate conservatism, with the associated willingness to use government to do lots of things, as opposed to scaling government back from people’s lives.